Upcycle Progress: Cardboard Lamp

One of the side effects of moving in from different country, as I did six months ago, is that I ended up with a lot this.

So, when we were given an upcycling assignment, I had little doubt about what raw materials I was going to use for the project. Yes, I decided to use cardboard. But, what do I make with cardboard. I looked up online to my astonishment that there are people who make a lot of stuff with just cardboard. I decided to make a piece of furniture considering the size of all the boxes. But, all the boxes I have are made up of single layered cardboard which might not be really stable for furniture. Hence, I decided to make something smaller that would not need to carry a heavy load. I ended up deciding on a night lamp.

I started sketching up ideas for my lamp and decided I would make the design shown on the below sketch. An LED light bulb would be placed in the center of the blocks while the blocks may be mounted on a turn table.

The Aesthetic I am looking to achieve here is the scattering of light effect by the corrugated edges of the cardboard. The rotation of the cardboard blocks could also produce the effect of a disco lamp only without the colors. Next action would be to take the Laser cutting workshop at ITLL and start cutting away.

Reference: Featured image taken from “http://www.designrulz.com/design/2015/02/diy-20-creative-cardboard-lamp-ideas”

Hi Gautam, those are really great sketches! As per our conversation, I would really like to see a rotating component to those ‘layers’. You could also experiment with, color transparency and hole patterns. Looking forward to your work.

Hi Gautham! Really neat looking sketch you got here. It doesn’t look like cardboard unless you come close to it haha. I was wondering how you are going to attach the lamb? would you have a base for it or leave it hang? also are you planning to color the cardboard?